Concurrent collaboration confrence port management

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems and methods for a collaboration conferencing system to track a total number of concurrently utilized ports across any number of conferencing bridges of the network for a particular customer and one or more billing actions may occur based on this tracking. This may result in an alternate billing option for the customer&#39;s use of the system. Further, a telecommunications network administrator may provide access to the collaboration conferencing system based on a total number of concurrently utilized ports rather than on a per conference or per minute basis. With the information of the number of purchased ports by the customer, the administrator may more accurately predict an available capacity for the collaboration conferencing system needed to support all of the users of the system and the potential collaboration conferences.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to systems andmethods that provide for collaboration conferencing with multipleparticipants using devices connected to a telecommunication network,including a VoIP network, and more specifically for managing concurrentports being utilized by a particular client or group with access to thecollaboration conferencing system.

BACKGROUND

Telecommunication networks provide for the transmission of informationacross some distance through terrestrial, wireless or satellitecommunication networks. Such communications may involve voice, data ormultimedia information, among others. In addition, telecommunicationnetworks often offer features and/or services to the customers of thenetwork that provide flexible and varied ways in which thecommunications are transmitted over the network. For example, sometelecommunication networks provide a conferencing feature that allowsseveral users of the network to communicate at once, rather than asimple person-to-person communication. The number of participants to aconference communication may range from a few users to several hundredusers communicating on the same telephonic and/or data call. Generally,the number of possible participants to a particular conference isdetermined by the telecommunication devices utilized by thecollaboration conferencing system and/or the user account associatedwith a client of the system.

Typically, conferencing communications require participants to theconference to place a telephonic call to a dedicated conferencingnumber. Some networks also require the participants to enter aconference call code into the keypad of a telephonic device. Theconferencing number and code are then utilized by the telecommunicationsnetwork to connect that participant to a conferencing bridge device. Instill other embodiments, the conferencing bridge may request a secondidentification code that indicates the participant is a chairperson forthe conference. In general, a conferencing bridge is atelecommunications device that hosts the participants of a conferencingcommunication such that the participants can attend the communication.Thus, the network typically receives the dialed number and conferencecode from each participant and connects the participant to theconferencing bridge. Once connected to the conference bridge, theparticipant may take part in the conferencing communication. Achairperson to the collaboration conference may have certain additionalfeatures for the conference, such as the ability to mute participants,hang-up on participants, or to control aspects of an associated webconference.

It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of thepresent disclosure were developed.

SUMMARY

One implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of atelecommunication network comprising a plurality of conference bridgesand at least one routing device. The at least one routing device isconfigured to receive collaboration conferencing information from theplurality of conference bridges, the collaboration conferencinginformation associated with collaboration conferences hosted by each ofthe plurality of conference bridges, correlate the collaborationconferencing information from the plurality of conference bridges with acustomer identification of a customer group to the telecommunicationsnetwork, and calculate a total number of utilized ports of the pluralityof conference bridges for the customer group associated with thetelecommunications network. The at least one routing device is furtherconfigured to perform the operations of receive a request at the atleast one routing device to initiate a new collaboration conference froma user associated with the customer group and process the receivedrequest to initiate the new collaboration conference based at least onthe calculated total number of utilized ports of the plurality ofconference bridges for the customer group.

Another implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of acollaboration conferencing management device comprising at least onecommunication port for communication with a network, a processingdevice, and a computer-readable medium connected to the processingdevice configured to store instructions. When the instructions areexecuted, the processing device performs the operations of receiving, ata collaboration conferencing system managing device, collaborationconferencing information from the plurality of conference bridges, thecollaboration conferencing information associated with collaborationconferences hosted by each of the plurality of conference bridges,correlating the collaboration conferencing information from theplurality of conference bridges with a customer identification of acustomer group to the telecommunications network, and calculating atotal number of utilized ports of the plurality of conference bridgesfor the customer group associated with the telecommunications network.The processing device may further receive a request from a usercommunication device at the collaboration conferencing system managingdevice, the request generated to initiate a new collaboration conferencefrom a user associated with the customer group and process the receivedrequest to initiate the new collaboration conference based at least onthe calculated total number of utilized ports of the plurality ofconference bridges for the customer group. Yet another embodiment of thepresent disclosure includes a method of the same or similar operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary Voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP) operating environment, including a central conferencingrouting server, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of concurrent port usage bya customer to a network of a collaboration conferencing system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for managing concurrent collaborationconferencing port usage in a collaboration conferencing system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a computing system whichmay be used in implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computerprogram products, and the like, for collaboration conferencing withmultiple participants over a communications network, and morespecifically for managing concurrent ports being utilized by aparticular client or group with access to a collaboration conferencingsystem. The term “collaboration conferencing” as used herein includesany type of multimedia conferencing over a network, such as audioconferencing, web or internet conferencing and multi-site videoconferencing. In one embodiment, the conferencing system may utilizeSession Initiation Protocol (SIP) to route collaboration conferenceswithin the telecommunications network. The SIP-based routing providesfor the exchanging of information from one device of the conferencingsystem to another that is not available in non-IP based conferencingsystems.

In addition, aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods,computer program products, and the like, for executing one or moreactions based on a total number of concurrent ports utilized by a clientof the collaboration conferencing system. In general, collaborationconferencing systems typically provide access to a conferencing bridgethrough an access code provided to users of the system. Thus, when aclient or user requests or purchases collaboration conferencing servicesfrom a telecommunications network, a network administrator provisionsaccess to the system and provides the user with an access code that theuser may use to access the collaboration conference system. In manyinstances, the network limits the number of concurrent ports for anysingle collaboration conferencing session. For example, the conferencingbridge may limit the number of utilized ports (or users) that haveaccess to a conference to 300 such that only 300 lines of communicationare made available for that conference at the bridge. In general,however, the limit of utilized ports for a collaboration conference maybe any number as determined by the network or bridge device or a networkadministrator.

In many cases, billing a customer for use of the collaborationconferencing system of the telecommunications network occurs on a perconference or per minute basis. For example, a centralized routingdevice within the telecommunications network may track the number ofminutes utilized by a customer for all of the conferences that occurover a period of time (such as monthly). The cost to the customer forutilizing the collaboration feature of the network is then based on thetracked minutes of conferencing. In another billing example, thecustomer may be billed per collaboration conference session regardlessof the number of participants to the conference. Thus, a collaborationconference with three participants may be billed the same amount as acollaboration conference with 300 participants. However, thisconfiguration may cause inefficiencies in the operation of thetelecommunications network as the network may not be able to predict thenumber of users to the collaboration conferencing system for thecustomer at any one time. Further, in some instances, the customer maydesire to pay for the collaboration conferencing system on a per-userrate rather than a per minute basis.

This disclosure provides a system and method for providing a port usageprediction and alternate billing option in a collaboration conferencingsystem of a telecommunications network. In one embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the collaboration conferencing system may be configured totrack a total number of concurrently utilized ports across any number ofconferencing bridges of the network for a particular customer and one ormore billing actions may occur based on this tracking. For example, acustomer may have concurrent conferences occurring on three separatebridges, with each conference utilizing four ports a piece (such as whenfour participants are included in each conference). Through theembodiments described below, the telecommunications network maydetermine that the customer is utilizing 12 ports concurrently acrossthe conferences and bill the customer according to the number ofconcurrent ports used rather than the number of conferences. This mayresult in billing for the customer's use of the system based on portsused rather than a per-minute basis. Further, a telecommunicationsnetwork administrator may provide access to the collaborationconferencing system based on a total number of concurrently utilizedports rather than on a per conference or per minute basis. With theinformation of the number of purchased ports by the customer, theadministrator may more accurately predict an available capacity for thecollaboration conferencing system needed to support all of the users ofthe system and the potential collaboration conferences. This moreaccurate prediction of the potential network usage may allow the networkto devote the proper resources to support the collaboration conferencingsystem of the network. As such, through the system, the customer to thenetwork may receive an alternate billing of the use of the collaborationconferencing system while improving the predicted port availability ofthe system for future use by the network administrator.

In addition, the collaboration conferencing system may monitor and/orlimit the total number of concurrent ports utilized by a particularcustomer or group of customers. For example, the collaborationconferencing system may track the number of concurrent collaborationconferencing ports utilized by a client over one or more conferencingbridges. If the number of concurrently used ports exceeds or equals athreshold number of ports, the system may take one or more remedialactions. In one example, the system may block the client fromestablishing a new collaboration conference until the number ofconcurrently utilized ports by the client drops below the thresholdvalue. In another example, the collaboration conference may increase thebilling rate for any collaboration conferencing systems that areestablished by the client above the threshold number of concurrentlyused ports. This increased billing rate may occur for the number ofconferences, the number of ports used, or the duration of thecollaboration conference. In still another example, the collaborationconferencing system may provide the client with a notification of anaction taken by the system in response to the number of concurrentlyutilized ports. In this manner, management of the utilized ports of thecollaboration conferencing system across multiple conferencing bridgesmay be conducted to aid the user and/or the telecommunications networkin providing the collaboration feature.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment 100 for hostingconference collaboration communications between multiple participants.The environment 100 provides for establishing communication sessionsbetween network users. With specific reference to FIG. 1, theenvironment 100 includes a VoIP network 102, which may be provided by awholesale network service provider. However, while the environment 100of FIG. 1 shows a configuration using the VoIP network 102, it should beappreciated that portions of the network 102 may include non IP-basedrouting. For example, network 102 may include devices utilizing timedivision multiplexing (TDM) or plain old telephone service (POTS)switching. In general, the network 102 of FIG. 1 may include anycommunication network devices known or hereafter developed.

The VoIP network 102 includes numerous components such as, but notlimited to gateways, routers, and registrars, which enable communicationacross the VoIP network 102, but are not shown or described in detailhere because those skilled in the art will readily understand thesecomponents. More relevant to this description is the interaction andcommunication between the VoIP network 102 and other entities, such asthe one or more customer home or business local area networks (LANs)106, where a participant in a conference will connect with the systemfor the conference.

Customer network 106 can include communication devices such as, but notlimited to, a personal computer or a telephone 110 connected to arouter/firewall 114. Although shown in FIG. 1 as computer 110, thecommunication devices may include any type of communication device thatreceives a multimedia signal, such as an audio, video or web-basedsignal, and presents that signal for use by a user of the communicationdevice. The communication and networking components of the customernetwork 106 enable a user at the customer network 106 to communicate viathe VoIP network 102 to other communication devices, such as anothercustomer network and/or an analog telephone 115, 120. Components of thecustomer network 106 are typically home- or business-based, but they canbe relocated and may be designed for easy portability. For example, thecommunication device 110 may be wireless (e.g., cellular) telephone,smart phone, tablet or portable laptop computer.

The customer network 106 typically connects to the VoIP network 102 viaa border network 122, such as one provided by an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP). The border network 122 is typically provided andmaintained by a business or organization such as a local telephonecompany or cable company. The border network 122 may providenetwork/communication-related services to their customers. In contrast,the communication device 120 accesses, and is accessed by, the VoIPnetwork 102 via a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 126 operatedby a local exchange carrier (LEC). Communication via any of the networkscan be wired, wireless, or any combination thereof. Additionally, theborder network 122 and PSTN 126 may communicate, in some embodiments,with the VoIP Network 102 through a media gateway device (130, 132). Forease of instruction, only three communication devices 110, 115, 120 areshown communicating with the VoIP network 102; however, numerous suchdevices, and other devices, may be connected with the network, which isequipped to handle enormous numbers of simultaneous calls and othercommunications.

In general, a request for a collaboration conference over the VoIPnetwork 102 is initiated by a requester through one of the communicationdevices 110, 115, 120 associated with the network. As used herein, theterm “collaboration conference” includes any type of collaborationbetween three or more users of a communication network. For example, thecollaboration conference may include audio collaboration, videocollaboration, web collaboration, a combination of any of the above, andthe like. For ease of instruction, the collaboration conferencesdiscussed herein are generally made in reference to an audio conference,although any type of collaboration conference over a telecommunicationsnetwork is envisioned with respect to the present disclosure. Similarly,although FIG. 1 illustrates some of the communication devices 115, 120as telephonic devices, the communication devices may be any type ofcommunication device, including personal computers, cellular phones andthe like.

Upon receipt of the request for a collaboration conference, the network102 routes the request to a routing device 140 or routing devicesintegrated within the network 102. However, it should be appreciatedthat the routing device 140 may be a part of the network 102, may beseparate from the network, or may have portions deployed in the networkand out of the network. In addition, the routing device 140 may beresident on one or more components of the VoIP network 140, includingseveral instances of the routing device 140 integrated throughout thenetwork 140. Further, although only a single instance of a routingdevice 140 is illustrated in FIG. 1, any number of routing devices maybe present in the network 102. In one particular embodiment, the routingdevice 140 is referred to as a Collaboration Conferencing Routing Server(CCRS).

To transmit the request to the network, the requester uses thecommunication device 110, 115, 120 to enter a conference specifictelephone number or access port. The routing device 140 receives therequest to begin a collaboration conference or join an existingconference. In response, and described in more detail below, the routingdevice 140 may route the one or more requests to one of severalconference bridges 142, 144 associated with the VoIP network 102 forhosting of the collaboration conference. Although only two conferencebridges 142, 144 are shown in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated that anynumber of conference bridges may be associated with the network 102 forhosting collaboration conferences.

In general, the conference bridges 142, 144 provide a hosting site for acollaboration conference between a plurality of users of the network102. Thus, conference bridge A 142 may host a collaboration conferencewhile conference bridge B 144 may host an additional collaborationconference. In particular, conference bridge A 142 is connected to thecommunications network 102 through a media gateway 133 similar to themedia gateway disclosed above. This configuration may be utilized whenthe conference bridge 142 is a time division multiplex (TDM) bridge.Conference bridge B 144 is internal to the VoIP network 102 throughwhich the communications of the conference are transmitted. Thisconfiguration is utilized for Internet Protocol (IP) based bridges andis generally described in more detail below.

One particular network and/or conference bridge platform supported bythe network configuration 102 of FIG. 1 is a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) based network. For example, conference bridge B 144 may be aSIP-based conference bridge. Such IP-based components may provideadditional conferencing features to the network by providing informationconcerning the collaboration conference in a header of a messagetransmitted through the network such as an identification of thecollaboration conference, video integration, Uniform Resource Identifier(URI) based routing and conference integration, conference accesscredentials for authentication and permission to enter the requestedconference. SIP-based conference bridges may also provide highdefinition audio, additional security features and transitions betweencollaboration conferences without having to redial into the system. Ingeneral, because components operating utilizing SIP can exchangeinformation within a header, many additional features for acollaboration conference can be offered to participants on a SIP-basedconference bridge. In addition, SIP-based CCRS devices may utilize manyof the advantages of information exchange within the header whencommunicating with TDM-based network devices.

To connect to a collaboration conference, each participant to theconference may be routed to the same conference bridge 144 for theduration of the conference. The conference bridge 144, in turn, providescommunication ports for each participant such that each participant canhear or otherwise participate in the collaboration conference. Anyconference bridge known in the art or hereafter developed may beintegrated into the system 100 of FIG. 1 for hosting a collaborationconference, including IP-based conference bridges. In addition, the term“conference bridge” or “bridge” includes any component of acommunication network that provides an access point to one or more usersof the network for a collaboration conference. For example, “conferencebridge” may also include such devices as a media server device, agateway server device or the like as configured within the network 102.

In some instances, the conference bridge 144 or routing device 140, uponreceipt of the request to initiate or join a collaboration conference,executes an application that queries the requester to enter an accesscode number that the requester enters into the communication device 110,115, 120. With this information, the network 102 determines that therequester intends to initiate or join a collaboration conference androutes the request to a conference bridge, as explained in greaterdetail below. Thus, each participant to the collaboration conference mayprovide the same access code to the routing device 140 to be routed tothe same bridge to attend the collaboration conference. Further, in somenetworks, the conferencing bridge 142, 144 may request additionalinformation from a chairperson of the collaboration conference toidentify the participant as the chairperson. In a similar manner asdescribed above, the chairperson may provide the information to thebridge 142, 144 through the communication device 110, 115, 120 toidentify the participant as the chairperson. The chairperson of thecollaboration conference is generally given access to additionalfeatures of the collaboration conference.

As mentioned above, users to the collaboration conferencing system areprovided an access code that is used to access or initiate aconferencing session on the system. Further, some clients to thetelecommunications network may be provided multiple access codes to theconferencing system. For example, a client to the network may be acorporation with several employees. The network may assign a uniqueaccess code to each employee of the corporation for access to thecollaboration conferencing system, with each access code beingassociated with the corporation client. For billing purposes to theclient corporation, the network may aggregate the use of thecollaboration system by all of the employees. However, as mentionedabove, this often occurs on a conferencing session or per minute basis.Further, because the employees may use different access codes for acollaboration conference, the conferences may be hosted on separateconferencing bridges of the network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of concurrent port usage bya customer to a network of a collaboration conferencing system. Severalof the components of the system 200 are similar to those componentsdescribed above, such as the routing device 140, conferencing bridge A142 and conferencing bridge B 144. Utilizing the example system 200shown, an example is now provided to illustrate the use of multipleaccess codes for the collaboration conference for a single client 208 tothe network. In particular, a client 208 with a network-assignedcustomer ID of 25 may contact an administrator of the VoIP network forcollaboration conference access for employees or other partiesassociated with the client. The administrator, in response, provides thecustomer 208 with access numbers and access codes to utilize thecollaboration conferencing feature. In one particular embodiment, theaccess number is a telephone number assigned to the customer 208 (withcustomer ID “25”) for accessing the collaboration conferencing system.Other customers to the network may receive different access numbers toutilize the conferencing system. Further, access codes may be the sameor different between customers. In one instance, the access code may beused to identify a particular user as the chairperson or subscriber ofthe conference. In another instance, the access code is utilized toidentify a particular conference to which a participant intends to joinand the chairperson provides an additional personal identificationnumber (PIN) to identify themselves as the chairperson. Thus,participants to a collaboration conference may use an access number andaccess code to join a conference that is initiated or started by achairperson using the user's PIN. In general and depending on the typeof collaboration conferencing system, the combination of the accessnumber, access code, and/or a PIN allow a user to initiate or join acollaboration session on the collaboration conferencing system.

In one example, a first employee or user 210 associated with the client208 utilizes the access number and a first access code (such as“111111”) to initiate a collaboration conference. In particular, theuser utilizes a communication device 110 to contact the routing device140 and provide the access number and the first access code. The routingdevice 140 verifies the access code as valid and directs the user'scommunication to a first conferencing bridge 142 to host thecollaboration conference. Other participants 204 to the conference onthe first conferencing bridge 142 utilize their own communication deviceto dial the same access number and access code to access the initiatedcollaboration conference. For each participant 204 to the collaborationconference on the first conferencing bridge 142, a communication port isopened by the bridge to provide a connection between the participant'scommunication device and the bridge. In this manner, the number of portsof the bridge 142 utilized for the collaboration conference indicatesthe number of participants to the conference.

In addition, a second employee 212 also associated with the customer 208(and customer ID “25”) contacts the routing device 140 from anothercommunication device 120 and provides an access number and a secondaccess code (such as “222222”) to initiate a collaboration conference.In return, the routing device 140 verifies the second access code asvalid and directs the user's communication to a second conferencingbridge 144 to host the collaboration conference. It should beappreciated that the second collaboration conference may also be hostedon the first conferencing bridge or any other conferencing bridge of thenetwork 102. Other participants 206 to the conference on the secondconferencing bridge 144 also provide the same access number and secondaccess code to access the initiated collaboration conference. Similar toabove, each participant 206 to the collaboration on the secondconferencing bridge 144 utilizes a communication port of the bridge.Also, although the first employee 210 and the second employee 212provide different access codes and have collaborations hosted onseparate conferencing bridges 142, 144, each employee user andcollaboration may be considered by the network 102 as belonging to asingle client 208 of the network for billing and routing purposes.

In one embodiment of the network 102, the routing device 140 maintains atable of concurrent conferencing sessions of the network. For theexample mentioned above, assume that the collaboration hosted onconferencing bridge A 142 includes four total ports (three participants204 and the chairperson 210) and the collaboration hosted onconferencing bridge B 144 includes six total ports (five participants206 and the chairperson 212). The routing device 140 may maintain atable of information about the conferences, such as:

TABLE 1 Customer ID Access Code Start Time Status Ports  25 111111 09:31Active  4  25 222222 09:34 Active  6 111 345543 09:36 Active  48 222543345 09:36 Active 172

As shown in Table 1, the routing device 140 maintains a listing of eachinitiated conferencing session by customer ID and access code used toestablish the collaboration conference. For customer ID 25, the tableincludes the conferences for access code “111111” and “222222”. Inaddition, the routing device 140 maintains a start time for eachconference, a status for each conference, and the number of portsutilized for each conference. More or less information may be maintainedby the routing device 140 in other embodiments. In one particularembodiment, the information included in the table may be received fromthe one or more conferencing bridges 142, 144 in communication with therouting device 140. In this embodiment, the routing device 140 may queryeach conferencing bridge 142, 144 for such collaboration conferencinginformation and store the received information into the table. Ingeneral, the table maintained by the routing device 140 may include allof the conferences hosted by all of the conferencing bridges of thenetwork. For example, Table 1 includes an entry for a collaborationconference for customer ID 111 and access code “345543” and customer ID222 and access code “543345”. In general, the table may includeinformation for any number of collaboration conferences initiated andmanaged by the collaboration conferencing system of the network. Thetable illustrated above is but a simple example of the informationmaintained by the routing device 140.

In some instances, the client 208 to the network 102 is billed for thecollaboration conferences indicated in the table. For example, anadministrator of the network 102 may determine that access code 111111was used to establish a first collaboration conference and access code222222 was used to establish a second collaboration conference. Further,the administrator may determine that each access code is associated witha single client 208 to the network based on the customer ID such thatthe client is billed for both collaboration conferences. However, inmany cases the number of ports utilized by each collaboration conferenceis not considered as the billing occurs based on the initiation of thecollaboration conference or the length of the conferences. Further, eachconference may host up to some threshold number of participants (such as300 participants on one conference) without any prior indication to thenetwork 102. Thus, port access to a particular conferencing bridge 142,144 may become scarce based on the size of a particular conferencesession.

To address these issues, FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method 300for managing concurrent collaboration conferencing port usage in acollaboration conferencing system. In general, the operations of themethod 300 of FIG. 3 are performed by the routing device 140 of thenetwork 102. However, it should be appreciated that any number and typesof networking devices may perform one or more of the operationsdescribed. Further, the operations may be performed through one or moreexecuted software instructions, one or more hardware components orcircuits, or a combination of both software and hardware components.

Beginning in operation 302, the routing device 140 queries one or moreconferencing bridges 142, 144 in communication with the routing devicefor information concerning collaboration conferences hosted by theconferencing bridges. The information may include access codes utilizedto initiate the collaboration conference, a start time of thecollaboration conference, a status of the collaboration conference (suchas “active”, “inactive”, “temporary”, etc.), and/or the number ofcommunication ports opened for each collaboration conference.

In operation 304, the routing device 140 correlates the accessnumbers/codes of the initiated collaboration conferences to one or moreclient or group identifiers. In one embodiment, one or more accessnumbers/codes to the collaboration conference system may be associatedwith a group identification or group number, such as employees of acorporation client to the network 102. In this operation, the routingdevice 140 accesses the table of concurrent conferencing sessions andcombines those sessions associated with access codes for a particularclient together. For example, assume that access code 111111 and 222222in Table 1 above are a part of the same group client to the network 102.The group may be identified by any identifying value, such as groupvalue 25. Through an analysis of the stored information, such as summingthe active ports in Table 1 for active conferences by customer ID, therouting device 140 determines the number of active ports utilized by aparticular customer of the collaboration conferencing system.

The routing device 140 may determine the number of active ports utilizedduring operation 306 of the method 300 of FIG. 3. In particular, therouting device 140 calculates the total number of active conferences andtotal number of active ports for one or more group clients to thenetwork 102. Thus, because access code 111111 and 222222 both belong togroup 25, the routing device 140 utilizes the information stored inTable 1 to determine that two conferences for group 25 are concurrentlyactive. Further, the routing device 140 totals the number of activeports utilized by the two active conferences. In this particularexample, there are ten active ports between the two active conferencesfor group 25. As should be appreciated, any number of groups and theassociated number of active conferences and ports may be determined orcalculated by the routing device 140. The information for group 25 isincluded here to simplify the description of the present disclosure.

The active port information may be utilized by the routing device 140and/or the network 102 in many ways. For example, the active portinformation may be updated routinely as more information is receivedfrom the conferencing bridges 142, 144 (such as when new conferences areinitiated or existing conferences are ended). In addition, theinformation may be used to provide different types of accounts to usersof the collaboration conferencing system. In one example, the routingdevice 140 may utilize the information to decide when a newcollaboration conference may be initiated for a user belonging to aparticular group based on the already active ports. In another example,the routing device 140 may utilize the information to determine if morecommunication ports may be added to an already existing collaborationconference. In this manner, the active port information may be used todetermine if access is provided for new conferences or new lines toexisting conferences are provided to a particular customer.

More particularly, the routing device 140 may receive a request toinitiate a new collaboration conference from an access code in operation208. In one embodiment, the received access code correlates to a groupidentified in the table maintained by the routing device 140. Forexample, a third access code 333333 that is also included or associatedwith group 25 may be received at the routing device 140 from a user ofthe collaboration conferencing system. In another example, the routingdevice 140 receives a request to join an existing collaborationconference by receiving an access code from a requester already assignedto a conferencing bridge. Through accessing the active port informationin operation 310, the routing device 140 may determine that the receivedaccess code belongs to group 25 and that the group already has at leastone active collaboration conference. In addition, the routing device 140may determine the total number of conference bridge ports utilized bythat group (in this case, ten used ports).

In operation 312, the routing device 140 may then compare the totalnumber of used ports for the group associated with the received accesscode for a new conference or to join an existing conference to athreshold value. In general, the threshold value may be any value thatindicates an upper limit on the number of ports that a single customergroup may utilize from the collaboration conference system. For example,the customer associated with the customer group number may obtain ausage plan from the network 102 for the collaboration conference system.The plan may allow the customer group to utilize 100 concurrent ports.In one embodiment, the threshold value of operation 312 may be set at100 concurrent ports for the particular customer group. In other words,if the number of utilized ports for that customer group is equal to orgreater than 100, the customer has consumed all of the concurrent activeports available under the customer's usage plan. If the routing device140 determines that the total number of used ports exceeds (or in somecases, is equal to) the threshold value, the routing device 140 mayexecute one or more actions on the received request in operation 316.Several examples of the types of actions that the routing device 140 mayperform or execute are described in greater detail below. If, on theother hand, the number of used ports does not exceed the thresholdvalue, the routing device 140 may connect the request to a conferencingbridge 142, 144 to initiate or join a collaboration conference in themanner described above in operation 314. Thus, through the total numberof ports utilized by a customer group stored in Table 2, the routingdevice 140 may determine when/if new collaboration conferencing sessionmay be initiated for that particular group.

In the example above, the threshold value is set at the number of activeports purchased by the customer group. However, in such a case, thecustomer group may exceed the purchased number of ports. For example,assume a customer group usage plan includes 900 concurrent active portsin the system but the customer group is currently utilizing 800 ports onseveral conferencing bridges 142-144 as indicated in the informationtable. In this circumstance (and assuming a threshold value of 800), anew collaboration conference for that customer group may be initiated ona conferencing bridge of the network 102. However, a new collaborationconference may configured to include up to 300 additional participantsor utilized ports. Thus, the customer group may exceed the upper limitof the usage plan if each of the allowed ports for the new collaborationconference is used. Thus, in some embodiments, the threshold value maybe a number less than the upper limit of the group customer's usage planso that the customer group does not exceed their purchased limit ofconcurrently used ports. In general, however, the threshold value for aparticular customer may be any number. Further, different customergroups of the network 102 may have different threshold values, such thata first customer group may have a first threshold value and a secondcustomer group may have a second threshold value different than thefirst threshold value.

Regardless of the threshold value used, the routing device 140 mayexecute one or more actions in response to the group customer exceedingthe threshold value number of ports in the collaboration conferencingsystem. For example, the routing device 140 may execute a hard blockingof any additional requests to initiate a collaboration conference. Inthe hard blocking action, the collaboration conferencing request toinitiate or join a conference on a conferencing bridge 142, 144 isdenied by the routing device and the request is not referred to abridge. In some embodiments, a notification may be provided to therequesting device and/or an administrator of the customer group. In oneparticular example, a recorded message may be provided to the user'scommunication device indicating that all conferencing ports of the groupare being utilized and to try the conference at a later time. In anotherexample, an electronic message may be created by the routing device 140and provided to the administrator and/or user's communication device.

Another action that the routing device 140 may take includes altering abilling structure for used ports exceeding the ports in the customer'susage plan. For example, each port utilized in the conferencing systemthat exceeds the usage plan is billed at a higher rate of usage. Suchpremium billing may be measured per minute or per collaborationconference, as described above. This information may be gathered andprovided to the customer when billing the customer for use of thecollaboration conferencing system. In this manner, exceeding the numberof concurrently utilized ports for the customer group's usage planincludes a premium billing rate for such usage. In a similar manner, therouting device 140 may alter a billing structure based on the type ofrequest received. For example, a customer may have one or moreconferences initiated that consume the number of active ports availablefor that customer. A request received at the collaboration conferencingsystem to join an existing conference may be billed to the customer at afirst level premium or higher rate as exceeding the usage plan. Further,a request to initiate a new collaboration conference when all or most ofthe active ports for the customer are being used may cause the customerto be billed at a second level rate that is higher than the first levelrate. In other words, it may cost the customer more to initiate aconference that exceeds the usage plan than it does to have aparticipant join an existing conference that exceeds the usage plan.

In yet another example, the routing device 140 may execute a softblocking action on new conference requests. In this action, the routingdevice 140 may allow new collaboration conferences to be initiated whenthe total number of used ports for the customer group nears thethreshold value, but may limit the number of participants to eachconference. Further, the allowed number of participants to theconference may be reduced as the total number of used ports gets nearerto the threshold value. In this sense, a throttling to the availablecollaboration ports for the customer group is applied to newly initiatedcollaboration conferences for that group.

In still another embodiment, the network administrator may provide usageplans of varying costs and available concurrent active ports based on atimeframe of the conference. For example, a subscription may be providedby the conferencing system or telecommunications network for a number ofconcurrent active ports in non-peak hours that costs less thanconcurrent active ports in peak hours. In other words, a subscriptionfor 2000 concurrent active ports between midnight and 6:00 am (or anytimeframe noted as “non-peak traffic”) may be billed at a lower ratethan a subscription for 2000 concurrent active ports between 8:00 am and5:00 pm (or any timeframe noted as “peak traffic”). In another example,the number of concurrent active ports made available to any one customermay be limited during peak or high traffic hours as demand for availableports may be higher during peak traffic times. Thus, a customer maypurchase more concurrent active ports in non-peak times than duringhigh-peak times. The system described herein may provide the mechanismthrough which such usage plans are implemented and monitored. Ingeneral, the timeframe based billing may be based on a time of day, dayof the week, month of the year, etc. The potential discounting ofconcurrent active ports in non-peak hours may aid the operation of thetelecommunications network by driving traffic to non-peak hours so thatcollaboration conferencing ports are being spread across the day orweek.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing deviceor computer system 400 which may be used in implementing embodiments ofthe present invention. The computer system (system) includes one or moreprocessors 402-406. Processors 402-406 may include one or more internallevels of cache (not shown) and a bus controller or bus interface unitto direct interaction with the processor bus 412. Processor bus 412,also known as the host bus or the front side bus, may be used to couplethe processors 402-406 with the system interface 414. Processors 402-406may also be purpose built for processing/mixing media data, such asaudio or video components of a media stream, such as a digital switchprocessor. System interface 414 may be connected to the processor bus412 to interface other components of the system 400 with the processorbus 412. For example, system interface 414 may include a memorycontroller 416 for interfacing a main memory 416 with the processor bus412. The main memory 416 typically includes one or more memory cards anda control circuit (not shown). System interface 414 may also include aninput/output (I/O) interface 420 to interface one or more I/O bridges orI/O devices with the processor bus 412. One or more I/O controllersand/or I/O devices may be connected with the I/O bus 426, such as I/Ocontroller 428 and I/O device 430, as illustrated.

I/O device 430 may also include an input device (not shown), such as analphanumeric input device, including alphanumeric and other keys forcommunicating information and/or command selections to the processors402-406. Another type of user input device includes cursor control, suchas a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicatingdirection information and command selections to the processors 402-406and for controlling cursor movement on the display device.

System 400 may include a dynamic storage device, referred to as mainmemory 416, or a random access memory (RAM) or other computer-readabledevices coupled to the processor bus 412 for storing information andinstructions to be executed by the processors 402-406. Main memory 416also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions by the processors 402-406.System 400 may include a read only memory (ROM) and/or other staticstorage device coupled to the processor bus 412 for storing staticinformation and instructions for the processors 402-406. The system setforth in FIG. 4 is but one possible example of a computer system thatmay employ or be configured in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed bycomputer system 400 in response to processor 404 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 416.These instructions may be read into main memory 416 from anothermachine-readable medium, such as a storage device. Execution of thesequences of instructions contained in main memory 416 may causeprocessors 402-406 to perform the process steps described herein. Inalternative embodiments, circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with the software instructions. Thus, embodiments of thepresent disclosure may include both hardware and software components.

A machine readable medium includes any mechanism for storing informationin a form (e.g., software, processing application) readable by a machine(e.g., a computer). Such media may take the form of, but is not limitedto, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includesoptical or magnetic disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, suchas main memory 416. Common forms of machine-readable medium may include,but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., floppy diskette);optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium;read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasableprogrammable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; or othertypes of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include various steps, which aredescribed in this specification. The steps may be performed by hardwarecomponents or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, whichmay be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processorprogrammed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively,the steps may be performed by a combination of hardware, software and/orfirmware.

The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention.Various modifications and alterations to the described embodiments willbe apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings herein.It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be ableto devise numerous systems, arrangements and methods which, although notexplicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of theinvention and are thus within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. From the above description and drawings, it will beunderstood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the particularembodiments shown and described are for purposes of illustrations onlyand are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.References to details of particular embodiments are not intended tolimit the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telecommunications network comprising: aplurality of conference bridges; and at least one routing deviceconfigured to: receive collaboration conferencing information from theplurality of conference bridges, the collaboration conferencinginformation associated with collaboration conferences hosted by each ofthe plurality of conference bridges; correlate the collaborationconferencing information from the plurality of conference bridges with acustomer identification of a customer group to the telecommunicationsnetwork; calculate a total number of utilized ports of the plurality ofconference bridges for the customer group associated with thetelecommunications network; receive a request at the at least onerouting device to add more communication ports to a requestedcollaboration conference hosted by one of the plurality of conferencebridges; and process the received request to add at least onecommunication port to the requested collaboration conference based atleast on the calculated total number of utilized ports of the pluralityof conference bridges for the customer group.
 2. The telecommunicationsnetwork of claim 1 wherein the at least one routing device is furtherconfigured to compare the calculated total number of utilized ports ofthe plurality of conference bridges for the customer group to athreshold value.
 3. The telecommunications network of claim 2 whereinprocessing the received request to add more communication portscomprises not adding at least one communication port to the requestedcollaboration conference if the calculated total number of utilizedports of the plurality of conference bridges for the customer groupexceeds or equals threshold value.
 4. The telecommunications network ofclaim 3 wherein the at least one routing device is further configured toprovide a recorded message to a requester of the more communicationports associated with not adding at least one communication port to therequested collaboration conference.
 5. The telecommunications network ofclaim 2 wherein processing the received request to add morecommunication ports comprises altering a billing structure for theclient for the utilization of the at least one added communication port.6. The telecommunications network of claim 1 wherein the at least onerouting device is further configured to provide the total number ofutilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for the customergroup associated with the telecommunications network to a billingsystem.
 7. The telecommunications network of claim 6 wherein the billingsystem bills the customer group associated with the telecommunicationsnetwork based on the total number of utilized ports of the plurality ofconference bridges.
 8. The telecommunications network of claim 1 whereinthe telecommunications network is provisioned based at least on thecalculated total number of utilized ports of the plurality of conferencebridges for the customer group associated with the telecommunicationsnetwork.
 9. A method for operating a collaboration conferencing system,the method comprising: receiving, at a collaboration conferencing systemmanaging device, collaboration conferencing information from theplurality of conference bridges, the collaboration conferencinginformation associated with collaboration conferences hosted by each ofthe plurality of conference bridges; correlating the collaborationconferencing information from the plurality of conference bridges with acustomer identification of a customer group to the telecommunicationsnetwork; calculating a total number of utilized ports of the pluralityof conference bridges for the customer group associated with thetelecommunications network; receiving a request from a usercommunication device at the collaboration conferencing system managingdevice, the request generated to add more communication ports to arequested collaboration conference hosted by one of the plurality ofconference bridges; and processing the received request to add at leastone communication port to the requested collaboration conference basedat least on the calculated total number of utilized ports of theplurality of conference bridges for the customer group.
 10. The methodof claim 9 further comprising: comparing the calculated total number ofutilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for the customergroup to a threshold value.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein thethreshold value is based at least on a time of day the request from theuser communication device at the collaboration conferencing systemmanaging device is received.
 12. The method of claim 10 whereinprocessing the received request to add more communication portscomprises not adding at least one communication port to the requestedcollaboration conference if the calculated total number of utilizedports of the plurality of conference bridges for the customer groupexceeds or equals threshold value.
 13. The method of claim 12 furthercomprising: transmitting a recorded message to the user communicationdevice, the recorded message associated with not adding at least onecommunication port to the requested collaboration conference.
 14. Themethod of claim 10 wherein processing the received request to initiatethe new collaboration conference comprises altering a billing structurefor the client for the utilization of the new collaboration conference.15. The method of claim 9 further comprising: providing the total numberof utilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for thecustomer group associated with the telecommunications network to abilling system, and wherein the billing system bills the customer groupassociated with the telecommunications network based on the total numberof utilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges.
 16. Acollaboration conferencing management device comprising: at least onecommunication port for communication with a network; a processingdevice; and a computer-readable medium connected to the processingdevice configured to store information and instructions that, whenexecuted by the processing device, performs the operations of:receiving, at a collaboration conferencing system managing device,collaboration conferencing information from the plurality of conferencebridges, the collaboration conferencing information associated withcollaboration conferences hosted by each of the plurality of conferencebridges; correlating the collaboration conferencing information from theplurality of conference bridges with a customer identification of acustomer group to the telecommunications network; calculating a totalnumber of utilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for thecustomer group associated with the telecommunications network; receivinga request from a user communication device at the collaborationconferencing system managing device, the request generated to add morecommunication ports to a requested collaboration conference hosted byone of the plurality of conference bridges; and processing the receivedrequest to add at least one communication port to the requestedcollaboration conference based at least on the calculated total numberof utilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for thecustomer group.
 17. The collaboration conferencing management device ofclaim 18 wherein the instructions further cause the processing device toperform the operation of: comparing the calculated total number ofutilized ports of the plurality of conference bridges for the customergroup to a threshold value.
 18. The collaboration conferencingmanagement device of claim 19 wherein processing the received request toinitiate the new collaboration conference comprises not adding at leastone communication port to the requested collaboration conference if thecalculated total number of utilized ports of the plurality of conferencebridges for the customer group exceeds or equals threshold value.